Sleeping With the Reaper
by THElaughingUNIVERSE
Summary: They'd watched each other's backs for fifteen years. Been teammates. Friends. Lovers. Wufei has one obstacle left to over come with Duo...and every morning the reaper comes.


A/N: Ever write something all in one go, spur of the moment and then go back and think "Wow...where did that come from?"

Disclaimer: I do not own the GW characters.

**Sleeping With the Reaper**

At 0500 hours  
A man came for me  
I turned away my face  
and said  
"Fuck off and let me be."

The man didn't jilt  
or jive. He swept a bow  
and left.  
I sighed and put my head  
down  
upon my desk.

My lover came in  
and gave note to the window wide  
His violet gaze was piercing  
"I may run and hide,"

was his motto, back  
back in the day. When the war  
and love, and loss  
swept red still on the shore.

But now he leaned his older  
hands upon the shining wood,  
his braid, not yet streaked  
with gray, fell over his shoulder  
casually. His eyes  
so deep and dense, like a boulder  
fell upon my chest.

"Do we run?" he asked, I looked away  
afraid of what my love might say  
To run, ah, to keep this paradise  
to live another day, with him,  
another year, another vice.

Or to face my justice?  
Long in coming,  
long with payback due.  
"Wufei," he whispers softly  
and all the strength I grew

seeps away, like a willow,  
letting water go.  
I shake  
my head and tell him truthfully  
that I no longer know.

He nods, and walks  
away from me, back to the bedroom  
door.  
I follow, slow, each step a breath  
my eyes are weak  
and sore.

At 0800 hours  
"I love you" crossed  
my ear  
and I loose the fight  
in my blinding eyes a tear

X

"How is he doing?" was the  
question at the door.  
Duo looked at Heero  
and shrugged, then  
"don't make me tell you more."

"I won't," the sympathetic  
reply. A coffee offered up  
Duo sat behind his desk  
and stared into the cup.

"He's dying," despite the wish  
to keep the problem silent  
Duo turns to his friend  
waiting  
because he needs the comfort?  
or because he must repent.

"I know, the doctor told me,"  
Duo smirked, "Chatty bitch."  
Heero nodded, a rare smile  
a silent digging stitch.

"I feel like I did this to  
him." Duo confesses, his head  
is bowed  
like so many branches under winter  
snow, like so many promises  
disallowed.

"How?" The blue eyes snapped  
"By watching his back for  
fifteen years?  
You love him Duo, and he loves  
you, and who's to blame?  
A stupid thing to even suggested  
yes, a stupid fear."

"Because who was I that entire time?"  
Duo asked, his cross in his fist  
"what was my name? and take  
a moment to consider my crime."

"You were death." Heero concedes quiet  
like he's afraid that life  
will catch the sound  
"I was death," is the reply, "I  
planted that seed, I made  
that ground."

"And now Wufei is paying for it,  
is that what you think?  
Take a  
moment to consider  
you idiot. And you're coffee is there  
for you to drink

Not stare at." Heero turned to his  
computer. And his typing ended  
the conversation Duo wished  
he'd never begun  
and the argument  
he should have defended.

"Consider this," said Heero  
after a moment of silence  
had passed.  
"is it death, who comes for Fei?  
and you who holds tight  
to the past?

"Or is it you, who appears to  
your lover every morning?  
And death,  
who was foolish enough to stay  
and fall in love  
and find a cause for breath?"

Duo stared. Another beat.  
"I know who you are Duo,  
we all do.  
You screwed up, it's okay  
here's your chance  
to make it up.  
Let you be _you_."

Duo went home  
shaken, with no warmth  
in his hands  
and sat, waiting for morning  
for the window to open, he  
waited  
to understand.

X

At 0500 hours the  
framed glass swung against  
the wind  
Duo didn't stand, why bother?  
The man shook his head  
and Duo smiled in kind,

they circled for a moment  
a stretch of time sleeping still  
Duo extended his palm  
"Give it back" he demanded  
and stepped up  
to bend this creature to his will.

The anti-light, no moon  
no sun,  
shone through from a  
mornings birth.  
And a crack, at the mountain  
tops, split open  
mother earth.

The cape, ablaze, the scythe  
a feather, fell  
like sick children, to the carpet  
A night in hell?  
Unlikely, Duo had higher

places in mind.  
His fingers around the feather  
closed tight, the dawn moved.  
a brilliant, shivering wave

At 0600 hours, into  
his lover's chambers, Duo sat  
and watched a moment  
the sleeping face of Wufei  
at peace with no enemy,  
no combat.

And with a gentle prod  
to stir the sleeping man  
Duo leaned the scythe against his knee  
mentally flipping the finger  
to someone else's  
master plan.

"Ready love?" he asked  
and Wufei sat up in bed  
"Duo," he rasped, his eyes bleary with  
sleep, the corners  
red.

"You won't run?"  
Wufei said sadly. Duo  
shrugged "No point,  
my missions done."

"I see," a whisper,  
broken, shook. The curtains  
kept out the dawn.  
"You will," Duo promised  
and held out his empty palm.

Wufei took the hand  
with a small sound  
like a laugh  
"No reason to fear the reaper,  
I suppose. Nothing good  
can last."

"Nothing wrong." Duo corrected  
"And you know I never lie."  
He chuckled "besides,  
when you're sleeping with the reaper  
you have any time to die."

Duo took his lover close,  
and offered quick a kiss  
Wufei leaned in, and held  
on tight  
and thought, and thought  
and already began to miss.

"No," said Duo softly. "You're  
not quite getting my drift  
You have the reapers heart,  
you live forever, Fei,  
with the reaper, if you choose  
and every soul I go to lift."

"I choose," said Wufei.

"What does the job entail?"  
"The pay is terrible" Duo joked  
and winked, "Just watch  
and learn.

"What about the others?"  
another question, hesitant  
broke across the transparent  
face  
"It won't be pleasant"

Duo answered truthfully  
"But in time they'll see us both."  
"So I am justice now?  
Ironic" And ready  
for the leap he swept  
a bow  
to life.

Duo's eyes, his face,  
his body  
filled with laughter.  
"No," he said ruefully  
"We just  
clean up after the bastard."


End file.
